Talks with Phillips, Cordero

Reds GM Walt Jocketty met with the agents for 2B Brandon Phillips on Tuesday. The talks were, as expected, of the preliminary nature. Phillips is represented by the Levinson brothers.

“It went fine,” Jocketty said. “We had talked a little bit in the past. It was more a kind of guidelines of what we’re trying to do. Once the season is over, we’ll talk again.

“We kind of stated our position and they stated theirs. We’ll see if we can come up with a middle ground somewhere. If nothing, like we did with Bronson [Arroyo], we’ll exercise the option and keep working on it.”

Phillips has a $12 million club option for 2012, with a $1 million buyout. I will have more from Phillips in my notebook on Reds.com and MLB.com later.

Things are further along with closer Francisco Cordero, who also has a $12 million club option. Jocketty and Cordero’s agent, Bean Stringfellow, have been talking for two or three weeks.

The Reds and Cordero are talking about a possible two-year deal.

“We’re just waiting more for them to get back to us,” Jocketty said. “I’m more optimistic something will get done there in the near future just because we’ve made more progress.”

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